Mississippi politicians join clamor over Confederate flag

JACKSON, Miss., June 23 (Reuters) - Mississippi politicians
on Tuesday joined a chorus of disapproval over official display
of the Confederate flag and state flags containing components of
it in the wake of last week's deadly shooting in a Charleston,
South Carolina, church.

At least two Republicans and one Democratic leader have
decried the bars and stars symbol that prominently occupies a
corner of the Mississippi state flag.

The battle flag of the Confederacy has become a lightning
rod for outrage over the killings at Emanuel African Methodist
Episcopal church in Charleston. The accused gunman is said to
have posed with the Confederate flag in photos posted online.

Mississippi Speaker of the House Philip Gunn became the
first Republican in state history on Monday to publicly support
a flag change when he called the Confederate emblem "a point of
offense that needs to be removed."

Republican Governor Phil Bryant said on Monday that he would
not go against voters in the state who backed the current flag
in 2001 by a 2 to 1 margin.

"I don't believe the Mississippi Legislature will act to
supersede the will of the people on this issue," Bryant said in
a statement.

On Monday, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for
the flag to be removed from the State House grounds in Columbia,
the state capital.

In Tennessee some politicians have called for the state to
remove the bust of Confederate general and slave trader Nathan
Bedford Forrest from its state capital.

Statues of three Confederate leaders standing for decades at
the University of Texas have been vandalized with red paint amid
calls for their removal, university officials said on Tuesday.

Opponents of the Confederate flag consider it a symbol of
slavery and racism, while supporters see it is an historic
emblem of the South's history and culture.

Mississippi's Gunn was joined on Tuesday by Republican state
Senator David Parker and Democratic state Senator Derrick
Simmons, who issued a joint statement calling for removal of the
Confederate emblem.

This is an election year in Mississippi, and the flag is
likely to become a hot-button issue for those seeking to win or
retain office.

Parker said the reaction to last week's shooting made him
look differently at the flag. "It makes you think, well, maybe
that symbol on our state flag means something to people in a way
that you really hadn't considered before," Parker said.
(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by David
Adams, Toni Reinhold)